Congressman Ed Perlmutter joined state Rep. Joe Miklosi over the weekend for a volunteer kickoff event.

According to a news release, about 100 people showed up to canvass and make calls on behalf of Miklosi, an Aurora Democrat, who is challenging Republican Rep. Mike Coffman in the 6th Congressional District.

“We’re building a strong grassroots team who are reaching out to voters and folks are excited about pitching in to help win this,” said Miklosi’s campaign manger Joe Hamill.

It was the campaign’s first event since the tragic Aurora theater shooting, which left 12 dead and 58 wounded. As a result of redistricting, the 6th is now anchored by Aurora — the state’s third largest city.

Rep. Mike Coffman

Meanwhile, Coffman and Republican Rep. Cory Gardner attended the Arapahoe County GOP’s Lincoln Day Dinner over the weekend.

“After we suspended our campaign for several days (due to the theater shooting), this weekend we started knocking on doors and making phone calls to voters,” said Coffman’s spokesman Owen Loftus.

Editor’s note: Throughout this election season, we will be regularly analyzing campaign claims via our political polygraph.

The recent prediction that Americans will experience heavy political advertising this election cycle is already proving to be true. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sponsored a TV ad for U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, a two-term Republican congressman from Aurora, that is being aired throughout the Denver metro area.

The U.S. Chamber is in the business of business and, as a 501c(6), is not required to disclose its donors. This particular ad makes two claims attacking President Barack Obama’s policies and leadership, which we will focus on here.

We’ve all heard the cliche and now it’s the campaign slogan — at least from the onset — for former state Rep. Joe Miklosi, who sparked his campaign Thursday night to unseat U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman for his 6th district seat in Congress.

Speaking candidly at his kick off party at a restaurant in Greenwood Village, Miklosi said Coffman doesn’t truly represent the district as he’s a “member of the Tea Party and is pushing a radical social agenda.”

Miklosi went on to say, “that he’s running to restore job growth, economic growth and the America dream.”

Republican Congressman Mike Coffman walks along an Afghan street during a visit last week. (Photo courtesy of Coffman's office)

Republican Congressman Mike Coffman just returned from a week-long trip to Afghanistan.

Coffman, a Marine who served in the Iraq War in 2005 and 2006, is on the U.S. House Armed Services Committee. This is his second trip to the region. Coffman talked with the Denver Post Wednesday about his trip. The answers are from that interview as well as notes he sent to the Post afterward. The answers have been condensed.

Q: How did Afghanistan feel compared to a year ago when you were there last?

A: It’s not all moving positively. The negative is that although I think we’re doing well militarily on the ground, I think our objectives and some of our goals are unrealistic. I strongly believe that there is a middle ground between the current counter-insurgency approach that has become the centerpiece of this robust nation-building operation and a counterterrorism approach, which is a military-only strategy that involves striking directly at the threats as we discover them.

Q: Talk about the goals of nation-building there, a la the Bush Doctrine, versus trying to keep United States safe?

A: The last time I went to Afghanistan was in November of 2009. I can remember asking a senior officer who worked with training the Afghan army how things were going. He told me not very well because of the challenges brought about by the cultural differences of the young Afghan men in adjusting to serving as soldiers in a conventional army. I think Afghanistan is particularly more challenging than Iraq was. You have a more rural population. I think equality of women is a good goal. I think it’s important from the human rights perspective, but we’re really trying to mandate it on them and I fear that in rural Afghanistan … we risk alienating them and further complicating our mission.

Q: So what do you do?

A: I strongly believe that (goals) can be accomplished without the current objectives of developing a modern system of governance, that does not reflect the political culture nor the history of the country, reshaping Afghan society by radically changing the role of women in an Islamic country, for example, and developing their infrastructure (i.e. roads and electricity) at an enormous cost to the taxpayers of the United States.

Q: Talk about President Obama’s rough timeline to turn Afghan security over to the citizens by 2014.A: I think the election of so many Republicans to the U.S. House of Representatives gave him breathing space on this. It’s helped him. Last week, the word on the 2014 date was filtering down to the Afghan leaders and they were very positive about it, it gave them confidence in working with the United States.

Congressman Mike Coffman excoriated the U.S. Army’s final report on the Fort Hood shooting, saying the watered down, “politically correct” approach to reining in radical Islam will only put more soldiers’ lives at risk.

“How many more soldiers must be sacrificed at the altar of political correctness before our military changes course?” Coffman wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates today. “I strongly believe that the failure to classify radical islam as an ideological threat to the United States led to the loss of 13 American soldiers at Ft. Hood, Texas.”

Army major Nidal Hasan killed a dozen people in a shooting spree at Fort Hood in Texas last November. Hasan is now paralyzed from the waist down after being shot by police officer and faces 13 counts of murder, and 32 counts of attempted murder in military court.

Witnesses said Hasan, donning an Army uniform, opened fire in a crowded medical building after shouting “Allahu Akbar!” — Arabic for “God is great!”, according to news reports at the time.

Lynn Bartels thinks politics is like sports but without the big salaries and protective cups. The Washington Post's "The Fix" blog has named her one of Colorado's best political reporters and tweeters.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.